


we'll meet again on a distant shore

by acanaceous



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, he's not even in this but i feel for him, i didn't know i wanted koala and ace to be friends before i wrote this but. i sure do, more importantly: poor GARP, poor marco is absolutely done with everything, theyre pirates and they say fuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 16:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17831888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acanaceous/pseuds/acanaceous
Summary: Sabo never sets sail to escape High Town.Somehow, things still turn out all right.





	we'll meet again on a distant shore

Cuffs, chains, seastone bindings, bars. And not the fun kind of bars either, Marco laments. It's maybe one in the morning, and Marco and Thatch and Haruta are chained to the wall of a prison cell deep in the bowels of a Marine base. Or, you know, Marco is chained to the wall. Perks of being a Devil Fruit user. Marco sighs, scowls, and complains to his companions, "And on our night off, yoi."

"Go figure," Thatch agrees.

They'd docked pretty inconspicuously (not flying their jolly roger or anything!) at an island a bit out of the usual way to restock, and they'd taken it upon themselves to go scope out the bar scene. Just fuckin' figures, the first dive they walk into is frequented by some Logia Marine captain who identifies them on sight. Shit, Marco realizes, someone's going to have to come and get them. He repeats this observation to Thatch and Haruta.

"Shit," Haruta echoes.

"Pops is never going to let us go to a bar again," Thatch says. "And who's going to get us -- oh god, I bet it'll be Izo, he's going to laugh at me so much. So much. Just put me out of my misery now."

Oh god, they're never going to live this down. Marco tugs at his chains and sighs again. Seastone, what the hell, how many devil fruit users do they even arrest on this ass-backwards armpit of nowhere island?

Just as he's getting ready to really get his wallowing on, he hears footsteps. There's the heavy, familiar thunk of standard marine-issued boots, but there's another pair of footsteps too, something clack-clacking like heeled boots. Their visitors turn the corner of the hallway and move into Marco's field of view and shit, just what he needs right now, some prissy noble here to gloat at him and tell him how the glorious Marines are fated to eradicate the scourge of pirate scum on the noble high seas. Ugh. He's way too sober for this. And on his night off… go figure.

The noble is some blond kid in a top hat -- he can't be more than twenty, if that. Still, young or not he's got that patronizing curl to his lip, perfectly tailored clothes and perfectly clean white gloves. That's a noble, all right.

"This is them," the warden says, as noble steps closer to inspect the three of them. Marco rattles his chains and flips them the bird.

The noble looks at them, sneers and says, "Pirates." To the warden, he asks, "They will be moved somewhere--for execution, I suppose?"

The warden says, "Yes, my lord. These are Whitebeard Pirates, these three--and Phoenix Marco is one of them, to boot!--so they'll be moved to Impel Down as soon as possible."

"I see," the noble says. "Well, Warden, I believe I have seen enough." He turns on his heel in a motion so exaggerated it almost seems sarcastic, and then--somehow--he trips and falls against the bars of their cell. Marco snickers, and the noble sends him a poisonous glare. He gets up, dusts himself off, says "I have seen quite enough!" in such an indignant tone that you'd think Marco himself had tripped him, and sweeps out of the cell block as the warden trails along behind.

Once they hear the clang of the door close, Haruta breaks out into full-on laughter. "Pff--did you see his face, his, oh my god," he manages to say, and then starts laughing again.

Something glints on the floor. "Haruta, wait," Marco says. He jerks his head in the direction of the side of the cell where the noble had fallen. "Look--what's that, yoi?"

Thatch and Haruta scramble over to look. "Holy shit," Thatch says. "What the fuck. Was that on purpose?" He holds up the thing Marco had seen--it's a ring of keys. The warden's keys.

* * *

"--and the noble, you know, he'd fallen and after he'd left Marco noticed there was, I kid you not, the warden's keys just laying on the ground right outside our cell," Thatch is recounting to his audience back on board the ship. "I dunno, seems improbable for an accident but he's a noble so it must've been--"

"A noble?" Ace asks absentmindedly, wandering into the room with half of his attention on the day's newspaper. Marco steals a peak at the front page -- oh, Ace's little brother's bounty went up again, good for him.

"When we got arrested last night, yoi," Marco answers.

"Huh." Ace sprawls down on the floor. "You know his name?"

"Nah, didn't mention it."

"Huh," Ace says again, but he puts the newspaper down. He looks a little contemplative, which is never a good sign with him.

"Hey, hey, Marco--oh hey Ace--Marco," Haruta says, slinging his arms around Marco's shoulders, "We--me and Thatch--we're gonna go back to town and see if we can catch that noble or something, you wanna come with?"

"Sure you're not afraid you'll be caught by the big bad marines?" Izo heckles from across the room. Haruta scowls and makes a rude suggestion about his mother.

"I'll come," Ace volunteers.

So they go, a whole party of them--Marco, Ace, Thatch, Haruta, Izo, even Jozu comes along--to walk around town and see if they happen to cross paths with the noble. This is a pretty good measure of how bored and desperate for entertainment they are. Because the Whitebeard Pirates have a supernatural knack for getting into trouble, pretty soon Marco spots a flash of blue and yellow in the corner of his eye. It's the noble, making his way across the street, and as soon as they spot him the whole group moves up behind him in what's honestly a pretty menacing fashion.

The noble turns around, seeming more annoyed than anything else, and asks, "Can I help you?"

"You bastard," Ace says, and punches him in the face. The noble goes down hard, and Marco winces despite himself. He's not sure what Ace's deal is (although really, when is he ever. That kid has so many issues it's not even funny). It's probably just Ace's regular medium-level hatred of the World Government.

The noble gets up, and for some reason he's smiling, and he says, "Ace!" And he punches him right back.

Now Ace is smiling too, and they're both laughing hard. Marco looks around--yep, everyone else is just as confused as he is. He feels approximately five hundred steps behind in this interaction, but it's nice to know he's not alone.

"You asshole, you coulda sent me a letter or something," Ace is saying, pulling the noble into a ferocious noogie.

The noble submits to this treatment with relatively good grace, but drawls "Yeah, a letter to the permanent address you totally have?"

"Asshole," Ace says but he sounds like he only wants to kill the noble a little bit, which is basically a declaration of undying love in Ace-speak.

"What the fuck is happening," Haruta whispers.

Ace and the noble appear to remember that other people exist, and Ace turns to face the rest of them. "This is my brother Sabo," he announces. This clarifies nothing at all.

Izo asks the obvious question: "Your brother is a noble?"

"Adopted," the noble--Sabo--says, which also clarifies nothing.

Izo says, "What?"

"Well," Ace says, and it's the tone which means he's about to tell them another dangerous and concerning story about his childhood, "I met Sabo when we were living on a trash heap, cause he'd run away from home, right, and when Dadan--you know, the mountain bandit who raised me--you know, anyways when we met Luffy we--"

"--you also tried kill him first. And me," Sabo interjects.

"I had issues when I was a kid, whatever." Because Marco has tact, he does not say ' _had_ issues?', but he's definitely thinking it. "Anyways, the point is that we adopted Luffy, and I guess we adopted shitty Gramps too but believe me that was an accident and he's... unspeakable." Ace grins at them, apparently having finished his explanation, and then grabs his brother by the arm. "C'mon, Sabo, you've got to come back to the ship with us--I want you to meet Pops, you'll love him."

* * *

 

So they go back to the ship, and Ace takes Sabo to meet Pops and everyone comes with because they are so confused but so intrigued. "POPS!" Ace says. "This is my brother--my other brother, not Luffy!" He seems content to leave the introduction at that, because Ace was literally raised in the woods, but his brother the noble rolls his eyes and steps forward.

"The name's Outlook Sabo. It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain Whitebeard," he says.

Pops looks at him for a long moment, and just as Marco is afraid things are going to get horribly awkward, he laughs. "I like him!" he declares. "He's got some manners, Ace, unlike you!"

"Yeah, yeah," Ace says and tries to look put-upon, but he still looks pleased. "Sabo, I wanna hear about what you've been up to," he demands, and they grab a table. Because the whole crew is made of busybodies and gossips, Marco and the others sit down as well.

"So!" Ace begins. "You never set out to sea like we promised, Sabo."

Sabo looks a little guilty and says, "Yeah, I know. I had--things. And my father," he trails off here, but Ace seems to regard it as explanation enough. "But," he adds, "It's not like I've given up or whatever, I actually am--" He pauses, as if reconsidering his sentence, and then tacks on a vague "you know. Doing things. How about you, Ace? It's been _years_ \--tell me everything."

Ace arches an eyebrow. "I've been pirating, I'm sure you've seen my bounty posters. Things?"

"If I told you I'd have to kill you," Sabo says with a straight face.

Ace huffs, and pulls Sabo into another vicious noogie. "Spill," he demands.

"Ugh," Sabo replies. The noogie intensifies. "Hey--hey, Ace--ugh, fine will you just stop?"

Ace stops. Sabo picks his top hat up from where it had fallen and puts it back on. "Well, as it turns out, when you're technically a noble and you hate the World Government it's actually pretty easy to become a R--" and then he stops. "Shit, I've got to call Koala!"

Marco trades a glance with Thatch. What, Thatch mouths. Marco shrugs and tries to tell him 'I have literally no idea' with telepathy.

"Ace, can I borrow a den den mushi, I need to call my partner or she's going to kill me," Sabo says. Ace waggles his eyebrows at the word 'partner' and Sabo rolls his eyes again and tells him, "No, asshole, not partner like that, I mean like partner in crime."

Ace produces a den den mushi, and Sabo calls Koala. "Who the hell is this," says a woman's voice through the den den mushi. "If this is the pizza place again, the answer is still no!"

"Koala," Sabo says, "it's Sabo."

"Where the hell are you?" Koala says. "Sabo, I swear I am going to kick your ass all the way to South Blue, would it _kill_ you to report in on time? You'd better have a _really good excuse_!"

"Yeah, about that," Sabo says. Marco can see him trying to restrain a smile. "Hm… it's kind of a long story."

"You're a terrible person," Koala says. "You know that, right? It's important to me that you know that."

"I can explain in person?" Sabo offers. "Meet me at Whitebeard's ship, it's docked just in the harbor. You can meet my brother, Ace!"

"You're a terrible person," Koala repeats, and hangs up.

Ace waits for a second, and then says, "You called your partner, now spill."

"Fine, fine," Sabo acquiesces. He says it very bluntly: "I'm a revolutionary and I've been using my father's company as a front for treasonous and revolutionary activities."

"Huh," Ace says. He looks unsurprised. These are probably what counts as normal things to say in Portgas D. Ace's weird little world.

"Also, you know Dragon the Revolutionary?" Sabo adds.

"No shit do I know about Dragon 'the most wanted man in the world'."

Sabo grins with a vengeance and tells him, "Monkey D. Dragon."

"Huh," Ace says again. "That's… something."

Izo looks confused. Thatch leans over and whispers, "Ace's little brother's name is Monkey D. Luffy!" Huh, Marco thinks. That's… something. Man, every time he thinks they've plumbed the depths of Ace's childhood something newer and weirder always pops right the fuck up. Who knows, maybe next he'll be telling them he's the secret child of Gold Roger.

Suddenly, as something occurs to him, Ace starts to laugh. "He, Gramps," he wheezes, "Shitty Gramps just wanted to raise one law-abiding child, Sabo!"

Sabo evidently finds this just as hilarious as Ace does and practically collapses on the table with laughter. "Ace, Ace, imagine his _childhood_ , can you even, Ace he's literally my boss I'm never going to be able to look him in the eyes again."

Just as the hysterics are winding down, Ace chokes out, "Fist of Love!" and they start laughing again. Marco sighs, because he has no idea what the hell is happening.

Puru puru puru, says the den den mushi. It's Sabo's partner again, Koala.

"I'm at the harbor, Sabo, which one is Whitebeard's?"

"The big one. You'll see it, it's hard to miss," Sabo says unhelpfully. Well, he's not wrong.

" _They're all big_ ," Koala says. "You're a terrible person. See you on board." She hangs up.

" _Fist of Revolution_ ," Ace whispers.

After a minute or two Marco hears a stomp-stomp-stomp as a small but angry woman makes her way across the deck of the Moby Dick. She marches right up to Sabo and says, "What the hell is happening?"

Marco feels like he's never related to anyone more in his entire life.

Sabo says, "This is my brother, Ace!" He smiles winningly, and adds, "He's a pirate," like maybe that was the thing in this situation that needed clarifying.

Koala evidently decides to go with it, because she knocks Sabo's shoulder and says to Ace, "Nice t' meet you! I'm Koala, this moron's partner. Please tell me every embarrassing story from his childhood right now and I will love you forever."

Ace grins at her, and Marco can tell they're going to have a great friendship involving property damage that will be extremely upsetting for all bystanders. When you hang around Ace long enough, you get a sense for this kind of thing.

"Have you heard about the time Sabo was running from a bear and he tried to climb up a tree when he was seven?" Ace asks, and Koala says she hasn't and they're off.

"So," Marco says to Sabo, "Not that we didn't appreciate the rescue, but…"

"Why was I there?" Sabo guesses. "Chance, basically. I was on a mission--the warden, you met him, he's been doing some things the Revolutionary Army is pretty eager to shut down--and heard there were some captured Whitebeard Pirates in the area. Since you're Ace's brothers, I figured I'd do you guys a favor."

"Huh," Marco says. "Well, thanks." He's certainly different when he isn't putting on noble airs for marine benefit, Marco observes. Small mercies--he'd take another Ace over a regular noble any day.

Koala sneaks up beside Sabo and jabs his arm. "Sabo, I'm in love with your brother," she tells him. "Can we keep him?"

"Hey, no fair," Thatch objects, "We found him first!"

"Boo," Koala replies. Turning back to Sabo, she says: "Anyways, I forgot to mention--and I couldn't tell you earlier 'cause _you_ forgot to report in, but you've gotta be getting back. Dragon wants you in Goa for the gala--there'll be," Koala looks around, remembering the present company, and finishes with a suitably vague "things."

Sabo nods grudgingly, and turns to Ace. "Duty calls," he says.

Ace tries for a smile, says, "See you around, bastard," and wraps Sabo up in a tight hug. When he lets go, he tacks on a "See you around too, Koala--remember what I said, I'm gonna need you to embarrass him for me when I'm not there," and goes to stand with the rest of their crew as Koala sends him a sarcastic salute.

Sabo gives them a little bow and tips his hat. "The devil's work is never done," he quips.

"You're so dramatic," Ace calls out, and he can almost laugh as he watches them go.

**Author's Note:**

> me: (beating my feelings about these shitty brothers with a stick) back! back! no unhappiness in my fic


End file.
